Driving into Kibbutz Nahal Oz, it is hard to imagine stepping outside the car. You watch the heavy security gate close in the rearview mirror after IDF soldiers waive you through as you begin a short drive to your final destination.
Your mind begins to imagine what it was like here 448 days ago as Hamas terrorists took over the same street, beginning a deadly rampage. The horror stories you heard from this kibbutz begin to play inside your head. As your car winds through the road, you think about the 15 murdered and seven kidnapped from here on October 7.
But the sharp contrast immediately takes over when you finally open your door and step outside. Your feet hit the grassy ground, and the sound of birds chirping is like a canopy over your head. The silence carries an echo as you realize the sound of nature surrounds you, and the wind gently brushes your face.
“It’s a place that I really love,” said Lishay Miran. “But terrible things happened here.”
As your mind begins to imagine the peace that exists in this place, you notice a faint humming sound in the background. The humming sound of planes is interrupted by a large boom that lightly shakes the ground. It’s hard to escape the reality of war when you realize it’s right next to you – when you’re divided by a fence, and you’re less than a mile from Gaza.
“Every time, it’s difficult to come here. It’s the closest place I can be to Omri. He’s right here… he’s not so far from here,” said Miran.
It is hard to wrap your mind around what Miran experiences when coming back to this kibbutz, a place where she created a life with her 47-year-old husband, Omri, and their two young daughters.
But it’s the last place she saw him alive, after she and her family were held hostage inside a home for hours here, later watching Omri taken away, kidnapped in front of their eyes.
What separates Miran from Omri is a fence and the Hamas terrorists holding him hostage just miles from their home.
“This is the feeling… I’m here, and he’s really close to here, but on the other side. He’s really far, and I can’t do anything,” she said.
No hostage deal
MIRAN’S WORLD has stood still since Omri was taken, as officials still have not negotiated a deal to bring him and the other 99 hostages home.
Entering their home on the kibbutz, the horrific events of that day still linger. The imprint of the shoes Hamas terrorists wore on that day and the bullet holes in the wall, in addition to the handprint of blood on their couch.
On the other hand, clean dishes remain on the counter in their kitchen, and Omri’s shoes remain untouched on the rack in their back room.
The only things that have grown are her two young children, 3-year-old Roni and 1-year-old Alma, and her continued fight to bring Omri back.
“There are days when I wake up and touch my face to understand that I really am alive and I am still here,” she said. “I look at Roni, and I see a lovely daughter, a lovely girl who sings and laughs and does a lot, but she always has sad eyes. You see in her eyes that there’s something missing. Children need their father like they need their mother.”
Miran is now raising her two daughters with help from her family in a new home after being displaced from Nahal Oz. She emphasizes the impact the war has on her daughters and other young children growing up without family members who were kidnapped or murdered on October 7.
She explains that cutting a deal to bring the hostages home will not only restore hope in their families but also in the youth who are growing up without their loved ones and witnessed the atrocities on October 7.
“There is a lot of discussion about making a deal or not and all this stuff, and I think to myself… ‘Oh my god, after all these days, we are still talking about it… just talking about it and not doing the right thing,’” said Miran.
For months, the Miran family has received false hope time and time again about hostage negotiations and officials working to negotiate the concessions and details of a deal with Hamas and other countries.
Miran’s brother, Moshe Lavi, who has been actively meeting with world leaders about a hostage deal, said that in July, hostage families met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington before he addressed the US Congress. Lavi said Netanyahu conveyed to families that conditions for a deal were progressing.
“When he says something like that, he needs to understand the implications of him not pushing enough for a deal from our side. He needs to understand that every day that passes, the hostages may die,” said Lavi.
Worries about remaining hostages
AS WINTER wages on and colder months approach, Lavi worries how hostages who have survived more than 440 days of captivity can survive cold weather in deplorable conditions.
“Taking down Hamas is something you can do in the medium and long term; bringing home the hostages alive is something you can only do now,” he said.
Miran explains she is always in favor of saving the life of any hostage possible, but if a deal is cut in the near future, it needs to include a clear plan for how every hostage in Hamas captivity will return back to Israel.
“I think right now the most important thing is to make a deal for everyone so we know how, where, and when the last hostage is going to come back home... whether to hug his family or to bury him here in Israel,” she said. “We can’t afford ourselves to bring 20 people and wait for another 18 [people] for another year. We can’t have this.“
Hostages released in a deal in November 2023 told Miran they were with Omri in a tunnel and that he was moved to 8 different apartments in Gaza alone for his first 15 days.
They also said Omri learned his family survived the massacre when he watched an interview on TV while he was in captivity. In April 2024, Hamas released a propaganda video of Omri in captivity. It was the last sign of life Miran received from him. That was more than 200 days ago.
As conversations about a deal continue, Miran says she will only believe it when she receives a phone call that Omri is on his way home. As this week marks another Jewish holiday without Omri, Miran and her family are praying this Hanukkah will bring nothing but miracles for them.
“This is the second Hanukkah Omri is not here, and it’s really tough. I remember last Hanukkah, Roni lit the candles in the hanukkiah, and every night, we asked that Omri should come back,” said Miran.
“Hanukkah is the holiday of lights, and I really hope that this light is really going to come back to our life because we need this.”